How to build a website maintenance and how to do it yourself in South Afric

This control is quite understandable however there are a few very important factors to consider with self maintenance, they consist of software to be able to maintain your own website and you will require someone in your office to attend to the updates. A self-serve maintenance plan also requires skill from your operator to manage a website successfully.
 

Why do you want to maintain your own website, do you maintain and service your car?
The control of your own website is an admirable ambition however in our thirteen years of experience with clients we have come to this conclusion and would compare it to buying a motor car. When you buy a new car do you normally buy a car and service it yourself? No you normally go for the car with a maintenance plan, don't you? When your car requires a service you leave it to the professionals.

Some people may want to do this but they are usually motor mechanics and certainly not in the majority of new car customers.

It is the same when it comes to websites, unless you know what you are doing rather get the professionals to service it.

The following are some considerations if you are planning to do it yourself. Your require software to be able to maintain your own website and you require someone in your office who understands how to use it and have time to attend to the updates.

We have had clients on the do-it-yourself plan who may know something about Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel, but they know nothing about websites, they know nothing about HTML, they do not even have a graphics software program and do not understand javascript for menus and menu navigation, importance of and meaning of directories, computer or file folders, they do not understand CSS files and their importance, they do not care or understand about meta tags and how important they are for the search engines - in short they have no clue about the technicalities of website building or maintenance, these clients just want to be in control or want to save money.

Why you don't want to do it yourself.
Do you know or even care what an HTML web page is? It is just a text file which contains computer source code and you can easily delete part of it by mistake consequently messing up your whole page. Do you want to risk messing up your web page? What if you make a mistake and accidentally delete some critical part of your website? What if you say something which may infringe on some communities senses, become a public liability or display spelling mistakes? Your website is open to the public, don't you deserve to have something you can be proud of?

Here is how you can do it yourself
There are only two ways to take control of your website to be able to maintain it both involve the use of software FTP or a CMS system. Computer software programs are not magical they are like a motor car it all depends of who is driving them.

FTP - File Transfer Protocol
This is software that allows you to connect to your website and you are able to add new information, pictures and documents as well as new page content.

Do you know how to write HTML code (a web page)?
The problem is that although it allows you to transfer files to your website, you still have to create the page. Do you know how to write a new web page in HTML? This is what you expect to see when you open your FTP program:

Really helpful isn't it? Basically the left half of this window (orange side) is displaying files on your computer and the right side (pink side) are your website files sitting on the Internet Server. So how does the FTP software help the do-it-yourselfer? It allows you to transfer files from your computer to the Internet.

The idea being that you have a copy of your website on your computer and make any changes you want then connect via FTP and upload them to the Internet. Simple yes, but how do you go about changing the files on your computer or adding a new web page? Well you will need HTML editor software which helps you in this process. You will also need graphics software to be able to create some button, artwork or to help reduce the size of photos suitable for the Internet. Once your work has been saved on your computer you then transfer them to your website via FTP.

Do you have a Graphics software programme?
You have to have a Graphics software programme to be able to, at least reduce the size of your photos for the web.
We all know how slow the web is so the smaller a photo the faster it will load.

Website Navigation
If you have a built in menu system on your website (over 99.9% of websites have these), then you need to understand how to add a menu item to this if you create a new web page. Most website menu systems today use javascript. You also need to know how to add a hyperlink to any page which will help people to navigate your website.

CMS Systems - content management
There are a myriad of online software CMS systems some easy and some very complex to use. The simple ones generally only allow you to change a few things like some of the wording on web pages. The more sophisticated ones allow you to manage most of the content, upload pictures, documents and hyper linking of pages are just some of the features of a more sophisticated system. Simply put you are able to maintain your website by logging onto a Password controlled space on the Internet to make changes, upload photos etc. The problem with all of these systems are that they are all clumsy and you have to fiddle to get anything done. As an example let's say you want to upload a photo and add it to an existing web page. The photo should appear on the right of the page, at the top of the 1st paragraph.

The first thing you have to do is to locate the photo on your computer re-size it to ensure it is going to fit, upload it to the Server then locate it on the Server and insert it on the web page. It may need to be re-sized again because it is either too wide or too narrow so you start all over again, (remember that your website is live and people may easily see the problems while you are creating them). A good idea on how this works in practise is that you should allow at least 30 minutes for this process which gives you time to correct any problems that occur, so it would be better done after hours or over the weekend when your website is not likely to be very busy. Do you have staff members willing to do this?

Writing new copy on your web page can be an issue if your website typeface is controlled by a CSS stylesheet (which it should be) which acts as a container for your fonts, maybe you want to use an Arial style font but the rest of your website is using Verdana style font - this inconsistency will make your pages look awful! Professional web design is done by professional designers who understand publishing and the rules that apply. The huge number of content management systems we have sold and the number that are actually used by clients is very small indeed. The reason being is that they thought it was easy, that is why we have written this page so as to be able to warn clients!

Conclusion
Technically a HTML web page is just a text file. HTML or web pages are not produced like you would a brochure for the print industry. Web pages use coding to position things on pages, like photos or headline text and body text, you will need a person at your office who understand these, they cannot be learned by sending the staff member on a 1 hour website course. Pages on the Internet are not designed with strict publishing software behind them so you can easily end up with a messy page or even worse a page that has been corrupted in some way.

Don't be swayed by web design companies who offer you free or cheap do-it-yourself maintenance solutions, if it is free or cheap it will cause more problems than solutions, (there is no such thing as a free lunch). Sure you can design your own business card or logo but it is usual to give it to a graphic artist if you want it done professionally, just as you can maintain your own website. Remember your business card or website is your image it is your face to the world, people will judge you on your public image. Putting it simply Internet publishing needs to be done by professional designers if you do not have one then do not maintain your own website!

Using Epnet to update your website saves you the bother, you do not spend any money on software you do not need to spend money on staff training and you need not waste your valuable time! We are able to make changes much quicker and ensure the overall management of your website is done with professionalism. We have many years of experience we know the technical answers to problems, we work seven days a week, at all hours of the day, so you benefit from this. Have a look at our maintenance plans and what we do for you...